Stay
by Verily-Snuffles
Summary: Tenten has trouble with a mission which brings back her past to haunt her... Can Neji save her from herself?


The flaming building in front of her crackled ominously. Neji pointed her to an upper window of the building. She nodded, and jumped in. She quickly located a crying boy grabbing at the still body of a woman. She tried to pick up the child, but he kept crying, 'Mama!'

Tenten grabbed the boy, grimacing as he bashed her repeatedly and wailed in her ear. She narrowly dodged a burning rafter, which seemed to scare the boy into being quiet. Starting to feel dizzy, she was grateful when she reached the window, and jumped down on the grass. She put the boy down, catching her breath, and got the clear signal from Neji; they'd got all the survivors out, and it was time to rescue any other bodies.

She went back through the window to the boy's mother's body, which she slung on her back.

She was running back to the window, short of breath from the thickening smoke and large weight, and tripped, being winded by the woman's body. She gasped in smoky air, eyes watering, and struggled to get up again. She gasped as a vision appeared strongly in her mind...

...There were flames all around.

A body was lying in front of Tenten.

She started crying 'Mama! Mama!'.

Her vision began to blur with tears as she cried louder and louder...

...Her eyes blurred, as she struggled for air while gripping onto the woman's arms. She fell to her knees, and then fell flat with her eyes closed and muttered, 'Ma...' before passing out.

_._-_._

She woke up on cool grass, next to the collapsing building. She was lying on her back, covered by a pale jumper. Her lips felt bruised. She looked around to where Neji was sitting against a rock, breathing strongly. She blushed a bit, wondering if he'd had to resuscitate her.

'Um Neji, about what happened...'

He didn't reply.

'Look, I didn—'

'Didn't WHAT?' He let it out, 'didn't mean to faint in the middle of a flaming BUILDING so that the wonderful NEJI could save you!? Why the HELL did you go in there when you KNEW you were too weak to get out!' He stood up, facing her.

'You know, what'll happen next time if I'm NOT THERE!?' he shouted, 'fucking hell, Tenten, you'll jeopardise your mission; you could even get killed.'

He felt bad for yelling at her; he was angrier at himself than at her. He slowly calmed down, and after a while, she spoke.

'I'm really sorry Neji,' she muttered quietly. 'I'll remember next time.'

He seemed to think she got the point. 'Get to bed, we're up at six tomorrow.' She stood up, passing him his jumper with her head bowed, and he left to his and Lee's tent.

She went inside her tent, where she folded up and cried quietly to sleep.

_._-_._

The morning passed effortlessly, as it was a four hour run back to Konoha. It was almost all silent, except for Lee's few, feeble attempts at conversation. He gave up after half an hour, anyway.

The bad atmosphere pressed down on everyone, and Tenten made her decision.

_._-_._

Once she dropped her bag off at her cheap apartment, she went down the main street. She mentally checked what she needed to do.

_Right, first thing's first, I need to replace the flowers._

She greeted Ino as she entered the shop. It was lined with shelves with pots of flowers of all kinds, Ino standing behind the small register, which was decorated with a selection of vases.

'Hey Tenten, will it be the usual?' She asked, smiling.

'I think I'll go with something more... special this time,' said Tenten, thinking.

'Ooh, is there a special occasion?' she stepped from behind the counter to show Tenten some flowers.

'Well, sort of. I just feel like a treat, the last mission was hard.'

Tenten explained what happened.

'Woah, how much did you get payed?'

Ino almost dropped the flower she was holding at her answer.

'WHAT!? I don't get nearly that much!' she exclaimed, putting the white tulip back in its pot. 'But I guess I've got the lazy Shika and Chou duo.'

Tenten smiled, 'It was also an emergency mission; no notice, we just happened to be in the area.'

She sighed. 'Lucky. Well, let's get you some flowers!'

_._-_._

Tenten, after depositing the flowers in the usual vase at home, found herself at the ramen place for a late lunch.

She ordered, and was about to take a seat when she heard her name called.

'Hey Tenten! Over here!' She saw Naruto, and joined him.

'Well, your training finished early.'

'Well, we're not training much, as Sasuke and Kakashi are off on some mission again.' Naruto huffed.

'Then how can you afford so much ramen?' she looked surprised.

'I know the ramen guy. But you could always shout me,' he grinned, and sighed.

'Okay, but only 'cause I'm in a good mood. And I'm not buying you more than 10 bowls, okay?'

'Yay!' He thrust his fist in the air, and Tenten smiled.

_._-_._

'Well, I'm gonna head off now,' she said, leaving some money on the table. She waved to Naruto as she left the ramen place.

_It's already dark outside_, she thought, putting her soon cold hands in her pockets.

_._-_._

Only ten minutes later, she was out of the apartment.

She got to Lee's door and slipped the note through the crack at the bottom.

_Goodbye, Lee_, she thought to herself.

She jumped on a rooftop, and jumped her way to the Konoha wall. Just before she was outside Konoha, she glanced towards the Hyuuga district.

_Goodbye, Neji. Sorry._

She took a deep breath, looked at the flower clutched in her hand, and jumped.

_._-_._

_I don't belong in Konoha. Everyone else has complex, special techniques but all I have is a like for sharp, shiny things you throw at people. What good is that? I'm helpless without them. I'm also a hindrance to my team. I stuff up, and let down the team in missions. I'm sure you can find someone much better than me. I can't continue to drag you down, not any more._

'Are you sure she wrote it?!' Lee asked, worried with tears flowing freely.

'She's out of her fucking mind.' Neji growled angrily, not noticing Lee. 'What the fuck is she thinking?! Since when was _any_ of that true!?'

Lee was taken aback by his anger, and sobbed quietly.

_I've got to tell her, though, _thought Neji, _It's irresponsible, and I've already hurt her enough._

_._-_._

Neji was leaping through trees with his Byakugan activated.

_She probably would have gone for the best lit path, since she went at night. Shit, what does she think she's doing?_

He'd refused to let anyone else join him; he had to do this by himself. In any case, Lee was in no fit state to come; he was crying his eyes out when Neji left.

Neji concentrated, _she'd go by a way we don't usually use..._, he guessed. He soon found a fresh, relatively unused trail. He followed it, hurrying as much as possible without losing the trail.

_._-_._

Tenten looked into the wide, deep blue lake. _What should I do now?_ She wondered, sighing. She shivered a bit in the breeze, wearing a t-shirt, shorts and half a dozen weapons.

She concentrated her chakra into her feet, and walked across the water, to a few metres from the shore.

She breathed deeply, facing the sky and closing her eyes. She picked up a foot, releasing its chakra, and stepped forward with it. As it sank she finished releasing the chakra, and was quickly submerged.

_._-_._

Neji finally darted into the clearing. It was empty but for a bag and some clothes. He added his jumper to the pile when he noticed waves breaking the surface of the lake, and quickly located the source. He saw a figure under the surface, took a breath, and dived.

Tenten was quickly sinking, but Neji was able to swim down to her. She was almost unconscious, being dragged down by the weight of her beloved weapons. He smashed his lips against hers and breathed air into her lungs. He ignored her wide-eyed stare, quickly pulled her weapons off, and kicked up.

They broke the surface and gasped in more air, Tenten choking up water. He swum her to the edge, and propped her up on it as she vomited water. His breathing was laboured as he pulled himself up next to her.

She had just begun to catch her breath when she was enveloped in a tight hug. She lay against Neji, suddenly weak. They stayed like that until their breathing returned to normal. Neji pulled away and peeled off his wet top, laying it on the grass. He picked up his dry jumper and threw it to her. 'You can change into that; I'll get wood.'

Tenten nodded and did so quickly, trembling from both cold and shock. After pulling on his jumper she ran out to join him. He passed some wood he'd collected, and once they'd both got as much as they could carry, they made their way back to the clearing.

_._-_._

They huddled up near the fire, and Tenten quickly warmed up. The atmosphere was awkward as the two sat there; Tenten in an oversized jumper, and Neji in cold shorts.

They both started saying something but quickly cut off.

'You first,' said Neji.

'Okay… Why did you come for me?' she asked in a quiet voice.

'I thought you'd do something stupid.'

'...But why save me?' she looked at him.

Neji turned and stared into her eyes.

'Because I don't want you to die, of course,' he said in a serious voice.

She broke off her gaze, staring back into the fire sullenly. 'I don't deserve it...'

'...Don't deserve what...?' he asked quietly.

'To live—' her voice broke and tears ran down her face.

He pulled her into his arms, 'Now it's my turn to ask: why do you think that?'

'...Do you know how my parents died?' Tenten lay down, her head on his lap.

'No,' he replied, leaning against the rock behind them.

'Our house burned down. I can't remember how it happened, but I was by myself. I noticed the smoke, and went to find Mum. It was getting smoky, hot, and harder to breathe. I found her...' she trailed off.

Neji squeezed her hand. 'And when the same thing happened to that boy you wanted to save her.'

She nodded, 'Your hand's cold,' she pointed out.

He laughed, 'That's what happens when your clothes are wet and you're leaning on stone.'

She sat up, frowning at him. 'You brought a first-aid kit, right? Why didn't you get out a blanket?'

He cocked an eyebrow at her, 'You looked like you needed company.'

She laughed lightly and said, 'You must be freezing by now!'

She quickly pulled off the jumper, gave it to him and ran to the first-aid kit, pulling on the blanket.

When she came back she noticed he hadn't put the jumper on, and said so.

Neji blushed, having been caught off guard by her sudden stripping. He pulled on the jumper, and Tenten draped her blanket around them both. He pulled off the still-damp shorts and shivered as the blanket slowly warmed up.

They joked a bit to warm up better, but after a while they were sitting in silence again.

'Hey Neji,' she said softly.

'Mm?' he replied

'What would you do if I had ... if you didn't come in time?'

His face grew dark but his voice was sure as he answered her question, 'I would have followed you.'

She looked up, surprised, only to see him looking back at her, intense in his gaze.

'And if I didn't decide to ...' she continued.

'I would have followed anyway.'

'But I—'

'You thought wrong. Your team-mates couldn't bear to watch you leave.'

She stared back into his eyes as he continued.

'...I couldn't bear to watch you leave.'

His hand found hers as she noticed they had been slowly leaning inwards. Neji moved his other hand to her cheek, and their eyes closed as their lips met.

Heat flowed through their bodies at the contact, and his arms looped behind her back, and she replied with the same. They pulled together as the blanket fell, forgotten.

_._-_._

Neji and Tenten woke up together the next morning, feeling warm even though all they wore was a blanket.


End file.
